Hey everyone. So it's been a few days since I blogged. Things are so busy here and I'm always exhausted (in the best way) when I get home. Plus, my internet has been going in and out with the strange power problem.
Anyway, let's start with Wednesday. We went to El Templo Mayor. Basically, it was an old Mexica (Aztec) temple that's been almost razed. Archeologist have only recently discovered it and its many secrets. You can see a picture of part of the temple over there ->.
We got to tour La Casa de los Aguilas. Basically, this is where they offered sacrifice to their deities. Both human sacrifice and self-mutilation. These guys were very serious about sacrifice because they believed that it was necessary to keep the deities happy and the world in balance. Intense.
I got to play fun photograph artist. I love taking pictures and this place was fascinating. I'm sprinkling some pictures throughout this blog, but if you want a more detailed look at all the amazing stuff we saw, it's all on my face book. That's here for El Templo Mayor: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150175326580044.298910.665665043.
With me in this picture is Ben, Travis, and Lexi. We're standing in the ruins as you can see. The architecture of this place is amazing. These people didn't even have the wheel when they made all of this hundreds of years ago. I'm simply amazed at the brilliance of their structures, considering. I just wish I could have seen it as it was back then. I'm sure it was a sight to behold before it was distroyed.
After seeing the temple from the outside, we got to go into the museum and see more cool stuff. Their artwork was as cool as their buildings. This picture has me, Ben, and Travis all mimicking their deity of death: Mictlantecuhtil. They didn't believe in a hell where there was suffering, but they did have an underworld (el inframundo). We just thought the statue was awesome.
When we got tired of touring the museum (which took a lot longer for some of us than others), we headed back to our part of Mexico City. Riding the metro is quite an experience, but I'm going to tell you more about that later because I have an interesting story to go with it.
Being out and about all day made me exhausted. So I studied some and went to bed. We've gotten so much information thrown at us so fast! It's crazy how much we're learning, and I have to spend time studying to keep up with it all.
On Thursday, we went to El Museo Anthropologia. This was similar to El Templo Mayor in the kinds of things we saw. Except one huge difference.Well, we'll get there. The rest of my pictures can be found on Facebook here: (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150176454275044.299089.665665043).
The first thing we saw was this awesome architecture. This is a fountain from the ceiling. The whole ceiling rested on this one post. Yes, this is a modern marvel and not an ancient one. But I'm still a building geek and I loved this one. It was so unique and offered many photographic opportunities.
We went into the museum and met our guide. She lectured for an hour of which I understood maybe a grand total of a dozen words. I need to keep working on my Spanish and understanding the natives.
The coolest thing we saw in El Museo Anthropologia was La Piedra Del Sol. Basically, this is a giant, 6 ton alter made of stone. Yes, I said alter. As in sacrifices. But look at it! Most people think its a version of the Mexica calendar, but its not. It does, however, have some interesting history and believes worked into its carvings. The four pictures in the center represent four world which have been destroyed. We're now living in the fifth one, which is supposed to be destroyed in a giant earthquake. We'll see about that eventually, I guess.
This was a great museum, but it was a lot of similar stuff to what we'd seen at El Templo Mayor. So, I won't describe a lot of it. Check out the pictures for more awesomeness.
After that, I studied more. Of course. I haven't managed to go to bed early yet, but I've tried several days. Oh well, there's just way too much stuff to do and see here. I'm enjoying all that La Ciudad de Mexico has to offer.
So, Friday. Friday was an interesting day. I started out my morning going to school, per usual. But by 11, I had a headache. By noon, it was a migraine. You try learning history in Spanish while battling a migraine. On second thought, don't. That's not something I'd wish on anybody.
But I dealt. And after school, we went to lunch. I had quesadillas from a street vendor. Delicious. But still headachy. I debated whether or not to go on the outing, but everyone told me that La Basilica was NOT something I anted to miss. Especially with my fascination for buildings. So I went.
This is where the interesting metro story comes in. So, for some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to use the metro during rush hour on a Friday afternoon. No. Just no. I don't think you could have jammed sardines in any tighter than we were.
So, after about 2 stops, I'm hyperventilating. Honest to goodness panic attack in the middle of the metro. So when the train stops, I squirm over to where Ian, Drew, Kristina, and Rebecca were crammed in and place myself at the center. I know I haven't known these people long, but they were awesome. Drew wormed a little extra space for us. Kristian and Rebecca kept me busy talking. Ian didn't mind when his fingers went numb from my tight grip. Thanks guys. Really.
Needless to say, it was an interesting metro ride. But we made it. And you can see La Basilica in that picture up there ^^. More pictures on Facebook at (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150179665825044.299322.665665043). True to form, this was my FAVORITE. And the random picture of the ground really is random. I just liked it and its gotten a lot of compliments, so I thought I'd share.
La Basilica really was worth it. As you can see in this picture <-, the building is leaning. That's because Mexico City is built on top of a drained lake bed and is sinking. There's a picture on Facebook of the huge cracks forming. In the future some time, Mexico City is supposed to sink completely and need a complete renovation. That'll be interesting... in a bad way, I think. A very bad way.
La Basilica was a church. It has like five or six different parts. But it was gorgeous, both inside and out. We got to go into several of the building and I'm amazed. Simply amazed. Some of it is more modern marvels, but so much of it is old. The age and majesty of the place just seeps into your bones. You feel like you're in a sacred place just by the atmosphere.
After that, Ian discovered a secret complex. Here, you can see parts of it. It was really fun, and now Ian goes into almost every open door he sees :). There was a fountain, a school room complete with desks and a blackboard, many passages and doors. We had a lot of fun exploring it.
I got some good pictures of it too. Those are on Facebook. But this is a great one with most of us all in it. Group picture, for the win! This group has really come to mean a great deal to me. Each of them is so unique and individual. We've only known each other for a week, but it seems like years with some of them. Funny how spending so much time together will bring you closer so quickly.
Well, our metro ride home was not as bad. Rush hour was mostly over, thank goodness. But I did stick close to people I knew, just in case. I'm so glad I have people watching out for me :).
One more day... Saturday!
We had a review session at the school at 11. It lasted for two hours ... Our test is going to be super difficult, but we only have a total of 6 of them for 9 credit hours. The test is probably going to be 3 hours of writing Spanish essays about what we've learned. I'm going to be doing a lot of practicing over the next two days...
But after lunch, we went to Frida Kahlo's House. It's basically an art museum. Not my favorite of our trips, but still fun. I'm just not a huge art person and I didn't really like her work very much. You can see us (or me...) being weird in this picture. It's Drew, Phelps, Ben, Ian, Travis, Kristina, then me in front. Yeah... I'm weird. It's why you love me.
After that, we had churros! I'm so learning to make those back in the states. Here's Lexi and Ian enjoying theirs. Basically, a churro is a fried donut-like thing with chocolate, caramel, strawberry, nutella, etc filling inside. They're not expensive either, like donuts at home. Delicious.
Well, now it's Sunday. I'm going to spend the day talking to Jesus and studying for my test. I'll try to do better at blogging more often so its not information overload :).
God Bless you this Sunday, wherever you may be.
Loren
We got to tour La Casa de los Aguilas. Basically, this is where they offered sacrifice to their deities. Both human sacrifice and self-mutilation. These guys were very serious about sacrifice because they believed that it was necessary to keep the deities happy and the world in balance. Intense.
I got to play fun photograph artist. I love taking pictures and this place was fascinating. I'm sprinkling some pictures throughout this blog, but if you want a more detailed look at all the amazing stuff we saw, it's all on my face book. That's here for El Templo Mayor: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150175326580044.298910.665665043. With me in this picture is Ben, Travis, and Lexi. We're standing in the ruins as you can see. The architecture of this place is amazing. These people didn't even have the wheel when they made all of this hundreds of years ago. I'm simply amazed at the brilliance of their structures, considering. I just wish I could have seen it as it was back then. I'm sure it was a sight to behold before it was distroyed.
After seeing the temple from the outside, we got to go into the museum and see more cool stuff. Their artwork was as cool as their buildings. This picture has me, Ben, and Travis all mimicking their deity of death: Mictlantecuhtil. They didn't believe in a hell where there was suffering, but they did have an underworld (el inframundo). We just thought the statue was awesome.When we got tired of touring the museum (which took a lot longer for some of us than others), we headed back to our part of Mexico City. Riding the metro is quite an experience, but I'm going to tell you more about that later because I have an interesting story to go with it.
Being out and about all day made me exhausted. So I studied some and went to bed. We've gotten so much information thrown at us so fast! It's crazy how much we're learning, and I have to spend time studying to keep up with it all.
On Thursday, we went to El Museo Anthropologia. This was similar to El Templo Mayor in the kinds of things we saw. Except one huge difference.Well, we'll get there. The rest of my pictures can be found on Facebook here: (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150176454275044.299089.665665043).
We went into the museum and met our guide. She lectured for an hour of which I understood maybe a grand total of a dozen words. I need to keep working on my Spanish and understanding the natives.
The coolest thing we saw in El Museo Anthropologia was La Piedra Del Sol. Basically, this is a giant, 6 ton alter made of stone. Yes, I said alter. As in sacrifices. But look at it! Most people think its a version of the Mexica calendar, but its not. It does, however, have some interesting history and believes worked into its carvings. The four pictures in the center represent four world which have been destroyed. We're now living in the fifth one, which is supposed to be destroyed in a giant earthquake. We'll see about that eventually, I guess.This was a great museum, but it was a lot of similar stuff to what we'd seen at El Templo Mayor. So, I won't describe a lot of it. Check out the pictures for more awesomeness.
After that, I studied more. Of course. I haven't managed to go to bed early yet, but I've tried several days. Oh well, there's just way too much stuff to do and see here. I'm enjoying all that La Ciudad de Mexico has to offer.
So, Friday. Friday was an interesting day. I started out my morning going to school, per usual. But by 11, I had a headache. By noon, it was a migraine. You try learning history in Spanish while battling a migraine. On second thought, don't. That's not something I'd wish on anybody.But I dealt. And after school, we went to lunch. I had quesadillas from a street vendor. Delicious. But still headachy. I debated whether or not to go on the outing, but everyone told me that La Basilica was NOT something I anted to miss. Especially with my fascination for buildings. So I went.
This is where the interesting metro story comes in. So, for some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to use the metro during rush hour on a Friday afternoon. No. Just no. I don't think you could have jammed sardines in any tighter than we were.
So, after about 2 stops, I'm hyperventilating. Honest to goodness panic attack in the middle of the metro. So when the train stops, I squirm over to where Ian, Drew, Kristina, and Rebecca were crammed in and place myself at the center. I know I haven't known these people long, but they were awesome. Drew wormed a little extra space for us. Kristian and Rebecca kept me busy talking. Ian didn't mind when his fingers went numb from my tight grip. Thanks guys. Really.Needless to say, it was an interesting metro ride. But we made it. And you can see La Basilica in that picture up there ^^. More pictures on Facebook at (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150179665825044.299322.665665043). True to form, this was my FAVORITE. And the random picture of the ground really is random. I just liked it and its gotten a lot of compliments, so I thought I'd share.
La Basilica really was worth it. As you can see in this picture <-, the building is leaning. That's because Mexico City is built on top of a drained lake bed and is sinking. There's a picture on Facebook of the huge cracks forming. In the future some time, Mexico City is supposed to sink completely and need a complete renovation. That'll be interesting... in a bad way, I think. A very bad way.La Basilica was a church. It has like five or six different parts. But it was gorgeous, both inside and out. We got to go into several of the building and I'm amazed. Simply amazed. Some of it is more modern marvels, but so much of it is old. The age and majesty of the place just seeps into your bones. You feel like you're in a sacred place just by the atmosphere.
After that, Ian discovered a secret complex. Here, you can see parts of it. It was really fun, and now Ian goes into almost every open door he sees :). There was a fountain, a school room complete with desks and a blackboard, many passages and doors. We had a lot of fun exploring it.I got some good pictures of it too. Those are on Facebook. But this is a great one with most of us all in it. Group picture, for the win! This group has really come to mean a great deal to me. Each of them is so unique and individual. We've only known each other for a week, but it seems like years with some of them. Funny how spending so much time together will bring you closer so quickly.
Well, our metro ride home was not as bad. Rush hour was mostly over, thank goodness. But I did stick close to people I knew, just in case. I'm so glad I have people watching out for me :).
One more day... Saturday!
We had a review session at the school at 11. It lasted for two hours ... Our test is going to be super difficult, but we only have a total of 6 of them for 9 credit hours. The test is probably going to be 3 hours of writing Spanish essays about what we've learned. I'm going to be doing a lot of practicing over the next two days...
But after lunch, we went to Frida Kahlo's House. It's basically an art museum. Not my favorite of our trips, but still fun. I'm just not a huge art person and I didn't really like her work very much. You can see us (or me...) being weird in this picture. It's Drew, Phelps, Ben, Ian, Travis, Kristina, then me in front. Yeah... I'm weird. It's why you love me. After that, we had churros! I'm so learning to make those back in the states. Here's Lexi and Ian enjoying theirs. Basically, a churro is a fried donut-like thing with chocolate, caramel, strawberry, nutella, etc filling inside. They're not expensive either, like donuts at home. Delicious.
Well, now it's Sunday. I'm going to spend the day talking to Jesus and studying for my test. I'll try to do better at blogging more often so its not information overload :).
God Bless you this Sunday, wherever you may be.
Loren
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